CFL.ca
One of the most crucial aspects for Canadian Football League prospects at the National CFL Combine happens behind closed doors: interviews.
When the league gathers for the annual talent assessment event in Toronto, it gives personnel staffs an opportunity to sit down and really get to know some of the top players eligible for the draft.
Each team is allowed 23 interview slots that are scheduled for 13 minutes in length over the combine weekend. And teams who run two meetings rooms, like the Ottawa REDBLACKS, are allowed double the allotment. By March 9 this year, all organizations had to submit the list of players they wanted to interview so the league could organize accordingly.
There are varying ways teams approach the interview process. The Argonauts are known for challenging players in an almost confrontational way to see how they respond under pressure. Another franchise likes the chat to be laid back in order to make the player feel comfortable. Those are just a couple of examples.
Player evaluators around the league unanimously agree that interviews are of high importance — in fact, some view the formal meeting sessions as the most important part of the entire combine.
“You find out how a player reacts to being in a room with a CFL staff getting grilled by questions. Some guys handle it well and others don’t,” a CFL scout said.
One particular team spends the first five to six minutes getting to know each player, finding out about their background, academic situation, injury history and trying to gauge whether or not they truly love football – how much and to what degree.
“The number one thing for us is do you get a feeling that they really love football. That’s really important for us in that interview process,” that organization’s general manager said. “In our game you have to love it – you’re not getting rich.”
Meanwhile, the same franchise uses the final half of the time to look at one video clip and talk about it in detail.
“We run one play and ask the player to walk us through it to try to get a feel for his football IQ.”
Another CFL club has a set of questions they ask each player and let the conversation flow from there. Towards the end, if there were certain questions that weren’t asked, then they will get an answer.
A different team tries to get to know a player as much as possible. Looking to find out if they could potentially be a good fit and teammate on their team. Discipline, reliability and dependability are at the top of the list for this CFL organization.
“Sometimes it will seal the fate for a player, if the interview is going along with everything negative that you’ve seen and heard, at that point you might pull the plug on them,” a scout said.
One other front office group runs through all the basic baseline questions before allowing a position coach to ask football specific questions. After that, this team likes to find out which particular opposition player they faced caused them the most trouble, perhaps a little cross-referencing.
Along with all of the individual characteristics teams try to learn about a given player, they also want to know what an athlete has planned for the year ahead. If drafted, would they come play in the CFL right away? Might a player be open to taking a practice roster spot? Or are they planning to go back to school to finish their degree?
It’s important for teams to get answers to those questions so they know if a player will be able to come in a contribute immediately or if they might have to wait a year, or sometimes more, to see the player on their team.
The interviews at the combine are like any other job interview, but there is so much attention and focus put on the testing results that sometimes the importance of face time with a prospect is forgotten. That’s certainly not the case for personnel men though, they prepare diligently on a player-by-player basis to ensure not even one second of interview time is wasted.
